Course Registration

Mid-May: Students will receive WPI login information. 

Mid-May: Math Placement Exam Opens 

Mid-May: Students will receive an email from their Academic Support Advisor with information about the next steps leading up to course registration.

May-June: Learn more about academics at WPI by completing your First Year Academic Modules and reviewing the information below about your major's course recommendations. Use this information to complete your Course Preferences Survey.  

June 8-June 24: Students and families are invited to participate in one of our First-Year Welcome Experiences where students will have an opportunity to meet with their Academic Support Advisor and review their course preferences for the fall. Students and families who are not able to attend one of our in-person programs will be able to participate in a virtual experience and connect with their advisor. If you are unable to attend an in-person or virtual First-Year Welcome Experience, your Academic Support Advisor will contact you in mid-June regarding next steps for course registration.

Mid-Late July: Your Academic Support Advisor will register you for your Fall semester courses based on the course preferences survey you finalized during First Year Welcome Experience.

Early August: Your Academic Support Advisor will reach out to let you know your schedule is finalized and how you can review it in Workday. You can then make changes to your fall schedule, if you'd prefer. 

October: Attend a workshop or presentation with your Insight Advisor and/or Academic Support Advisor to learn how to navigate Workday and the WPI Planner in order to build saved schedules for your C and D term courses. 

Mid-November: First year students course registration becomes live, and students are able to register for their C and D term courses.

Registration for Spring Semester courses will occur in Mid-November.  Please make sure to create more than one plan for your C and D term courses just in case you don’t get into your first selections. Your Insight Advisor is available to assist you with your schedule.

Scroll further down on this webpage to see what courses are recommended for your chosen major(s). 

1. Completing the Math Placement Exam is required for students who intend to register for Calculus in the Fall semester. Be sure to consider your Math Placement results when selecting course preferences. It is the best guide for selecting the most appropriate math course in A and B terms.
2. Students considering a modern language should consider taking the placement exam to determine which level of the language you should begin with:
   1. For Spanish Placement Information, Please Email: Professor Angel Rivera (arivera@wpi.edu)
   2. For German Placement Information, Please Email: Professor Daniel DiMassa (ddimassa@wpi.edu)
   3. For Arabic Placement Information, Please Email: Professor Mohammed El Hamzaoui (melhamzaoui@wpi.edu)
   4. For Chinese Placement Information, Please Email: Professor Wen-Hua Du (wdu2@wpi.edu)
   5. For Integrated Skills in English (for International Students): The placement exam is not currently required, and students are welcome to register for all ISE courses. Please contact Prof. Esther Boucher-Yip (efboucher@wpi.edu) or Prof. Althea Danielski (amdanielski@wpi.edu) if you have any questions

Consider if you have AP, IB, or Transfer Credit when selecting course preferences. We recognize that you may not have received all of your scores by the time you select your course preferences, so we recommend communicating with your Academic Support Advisor over the summer if your preferences change once you receive your scores. Keep in mind that you cannot apply credit to your degree requirements for the same course twice, so if you received credit from your exams, retaking the course at WPI would mean foregoing the AP credit. 

• Courses WPI Accepts AP Credit for
• Courses WPI Accepts IB Credit for
• Information on transferring course credit

Program Tracking Sheets can help you to see the full curriculum for your intended program of study. 

Incoming students will follow the tracking sheet linked for the class of 2030. If the 2030 tracking sheet is not yet available for their major(s), students should refer to the class of 2029 tracking sheet for a rough idea of their requirements while the 2030 tracking sheets are finalized.

Find your Program Tracking Sheet for your major here

The Office of Academic Advising is here to guide and connect you with resources to assist with your academic plans and goals throughout your time at WPI. 

Meet our Academic Advising team! All students are assigned an Academic Support Advisor in the summer before their first year. This advisor supports students throughout their entire WPI experience. In the summer leading up to your first semester, the best way to contact your Academic Support Advisor is to email them directly. Once classes begin, you can schedule an appointment with your advisor through Tutortrac. 

You will be prompted to declare your major near the end of B-Term of your first year. During the spring semester, you will also be assigned a Faculty Advisor in that major. Your Faculty Advisor will provide major-specific support and guidance throughout the remainder of your time at WPI.

If you are still undecided about your major by the end of your first semester, that's okay! You will still be assigned a Faculty Advisor who can work with you to explore different academic pathways until you are ready to declare a major. The Office of Academic Advising also has many resources to help you explore your options and interests. Contact us for more information. 

• You may also consider registering for FY 1800 - Discovering Majors And Careers - in A term or C term. In this course, students will utilize career assessment tools, research majors of interest and career paths, attend major panels, speak to students/faculty in majors of interest, and participate in informational interviews with alumni.

The Great Problems Seminar (GPS) is a two-term course that immerses first-year students into university-level research and introduces them to the project-based curriculum at WPI. As part of The Global School at WPI, the course gives students and faculty the opportunity to step outside their disciplines to solve problems focused on themes of global importance. 

How many courses are there that give you credit for working on one of the world’s most pressing challenges?  And while you are working on issues of pandemic, food, energy, climate change, sheltering the displaced, you will also develop great friendships, important skills and valuable relationships with faculty.  Best of all, your solution could make a real difference in someone’s life. 

The Great Problem Seminars (GPS) give first-year students and faculty the opportunity to step outside their disciplines to solve problems focused on themes of global importance, culminating in annual Poster Presentation Days that celebrate students’ innovative research. While tackling some of the world’s most pressing problems, students who choose these classes will develop skills, knowledge and confidence valuable not only for the rest of their college career, but also for life.

Each GPS consists of two linked courses that are taught by two professors from different disciplines. In the first term you will explore many facets of a great problem, such as air pollution, access to clean water, or disease control. In the second term you will work in a team to produce a solution and share it with the WPI community.

GPS courses are a two-term linked project experience taught by two faculty members.  

In the first term you will explore many facets of a great problem and then, in the second, work in a team with support of faculty to produce a solution, and show it off to the whole campus! 

Note that each course carries different credit and may count towards different requirements depending on your major. 

Great Problems Seminars are only available in A and B term of your first year.

Cities in the 21st century face a range of interconnected social, environmental, and technical problems. Many communities struggle to secure healthy food, clean air and water, and affordable energy, while inequality, climate vulnerability, and poverty persist despite growing awareness and technological progress. Yet cities are also hubs of concentrated innovation, intelligence, experimentation, and collective problem-solving.

This two-term course uses the city of Worcester as a living laboratory to explore the challenges and opportunities cities present as we seek sustainable ways of living. Students will investigate key systems that support urban life, including water, energy, transportation, housing, land use, and biodiversity, learning from conceptual models and empirical evidence in the city of Worcester. Field trips, urban walks, and guest speakers will complement classroom activities and allow students to tie concepts to the real world while learning about the city. 

The second part of the course explicitly connects theory to practice as students work in teams to address a priority Green Worcester project topic. Topics will be determined in consultation with city offices, including the Department of Sustainability and Resilience, to address issues that are relevant to city planning. Teams will contribute to these topics through literature review, field work, and design applications, addressing such topics as green infrastructure design, cool pockets and heat resilience measures, quality of water in the city’s lakes and ponds, and renewable energy siting.

This GPS carries 1/3 unit ES 1000 credit and 1/3 unit SS 1000 credit.

Meet the Instructors!

• Derren Rosbach: I am an Environmental and Sustainability Planner teaching Great Problems Seminars on topics such as energy, water, sustainability, and energy. The overarching goal of my teaching and research is to contribute to an interdisciplinary understanding of environmental governance, policy, and collective action. More specifically, I focus on the building of individual, organizational, and institutional capacities to participate in transdisciplinary efforts to address complex social and environmental sustainability problems through the application of science and technology. Learn more at: https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/drosbach  
• Stephen McCauley: I am a human-environment geographer with teaching and research interests around climate resilience, urban planning and geospatial analysis. As co-director of WPI’s Melbourne, Australia Project Center, I have led many projects in that city around sustainable energy, transportation, emergency services and other social services. My other study site is my own city of Worcester, Massachusetts where I apply mapping and spatial modeling to support sustainable city initiatives, such as urban heat resilience and green infrastructure development. I also direct WPI’s Global Lab, where I help students and faculty develop high impact visualization and media strategies. Learn more at: https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/mccauley 

We are consistently confronted with novel and unique medical challenges. From global pandemics that sweep through entire continents to more localized health challenges. Why do some communities or populations seem more prone to certain diseases than others? Why do millions of people, globally, continue to die from preventable diseases every year despite amazing technological advances in the health field?  This course explores these questions from multiple disciplinary backgrounds. Through case studies, you will practice being "disease detectives" and help uncover the origins of diseases. You will also explore the role of technology in solving diseases.

This GPS carries 1/3 unit BB 1000 credit and 1/3 SS 1000 credit. 

1/3 unit of this Great Problems Seminar also counts towards a minor in Global Public Health.

Meet the Instructors!

• Karen Oates: Dr. Karen Oates joined WPI from the National Science Foundation, where she served as deputy director of the Division of Undergraduate Education. From 2010 to 2017, she was the Peterson Family Dean of Arts and Sciences at WPI, overseeing seven departments and interdisciplinary programs in Robotics, Data Science, and Science and Technology Studies. She earned her BS at RIT and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry at George Washington University. She later served as founding provost of Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, where she established the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement—host to SENCER, a STEM reform initiative she co-founded that connects undergraduate learning to critical civic questions. Her honors include the Bruce Alberts Award for Excellence in Science Education Reform, election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and selection as a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer. Learn more at: https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/koates  
• Tsitsi Masvawure: I am a medical anthropologist and global health researcher, and I study sexual and reproductive health, broadly, and HIV, maternal health and menstrual wellbeing, specifically. In my research and teaching, I seek to unpack how “power” in all its forms (i.e., power over, power within, power with, power to etc) shapes global health knowledge and practice, infrastructures and possibilities. At WPI, I also co-direct the MS in Global Health and the Minor in Global Public Health. Learn more at https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/tmasvawure 

AI is a concept and technology that is the cause of much hope, anxiety, and imagined opportunity. Misconceptions abound, and many have formed quick, deeply felt opinions before fully understanding AI, both socially and technologically. In this GPS, we will explore the history and future of artificial intelligence, and imagine new futures with—or without—AI. The culminating project will be to build games or interactive media that express your own, hopeful, imagined future and that ask and answer: for this future to exist, what must happen with AI from this point forward and what must we do to get there? Through game design project work, you will gain skills in interdisciplinary teamwork and interactive experience design, as well as game production skills in audio, visual arts, writing, and/or programming.

This GPS carries 1/3 unit SS1000 credit and IMGD 2000-level credit. Also satisfies the IMGD social implications requirement.

Meet the Instructors!

• Gillian Smith: I am a game designer and human-computer interaction researcher, as well as Professor and Program Director for Interactive Media & Game Development at WPI. I teach courses in Critical AI Literacy, Novel Interface Design, Artificial Intelligence for Games, and Community-Engaged Design. My research and creative practice focuses on programming for interactive art, ethical design for human interaction with new technologies, and how people learn through making and playing games. In GPS, my goal is to help students build skills in interdisciplinary collaboration, design and systems thinking, and future-oriented design. I believe in humanizing education through play and supporting holistic wellbeing. My favorite recent games include Civilization VII, Chants of Sennaar, and Titanium Court, and in my leisure time I enjoy reading and hiking. Learn more at: https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/gmsmith  
• Laura Roberts: I am an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Integrative and Global Studies department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Director of the Worcester Community Project Center, and Co-Director of the Montreal Project Center. Drawing on my background in the nonprofit sector, I bring a practitioner’s perspective to my teaching, with a focus on addressing real-world challenges such as food insecurity, barriers to education, and unequal access to essential resources and opportunities. I am particularly interested in how emerging technologies can reinforce existing inequities. In GPS: Games for Hopeful AI Futures, we explore these questions by examining who benefits, who is left out, and how we might interrupt these patterns to imagine more just and community-centered futures. Learn more at https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/lroberts  

Join us in exploring a positive future climate outlook that accounts for, but moves beyond climate anxiety and toward a regenerative approach. In this course, we will use integrative (scientific and humanistic) project-based approaches to understanding current and future issues at local to global scales. The course fosters a positive perspective by focusing on nature-based climate solutions, technological innovations, and social justice, empowering students to recognize their agency as professionals and leaders in a changing world. Students in past courses described how learning and connecting scientific knowledge, cultural awareness, research skills, and values contributed to feeling empowered to understand—and act on—the climate crisis.

This GPS carries 1/3 unit BB1000 credit and 1/3 unit INTL1000 (counts towards HUA) credit.

Meet the Instructors!

• Marja Bakermans: I am a wildlife biologist who researches and promotes biodiversity conservation by maintaining viable wildlife populations across the landscape. I am interested in how management practices, steeped in traditional practices and knowledge, can support humans and wildlife. Ultimately, it is my goal to provide an inclusive and enjoyable learning environment that fosters the growth process for students and allows us all to be lifelong learners. Learn more at https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/mbakermans  
• Geoffrey Pfeifer: I am a philosopher whose interests and expertise are in social and political philosophy, critical theory, and global justice (climate justice, economic justice, etc). I teach and publish widely on these issues. I co-teach the Climate Presents, Climate Futures GPS course with Prof. Bakermans. We work hard to make this course inclusive, fun, and to empower students to use their knowledge, skills, and voices in helping confront issues related to climate change and to imagine, and work toward, a better world. Learn more at: https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/gpfeifer  

This course focuses on material resources and reusing them—recycling. It blends engineering with humanities and builds a framework for the world in which students will live, showing them how they can make the world different through their ingenuity and innovation. Policy and societal issues are also discussed in the context of the recovery and recycling. Students collaborate with the NSF Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling (CR3) and work on projects sponsored by leading global corporations.

This GPS carries 1/3 unit ES 1000 credit and 1/3 unit HU1100 credit.

Meet the Instructors!

• Svetlana Nikitina: The goal of my research and writing is human choice to live in a world where technological and scientific developments, material production and consumption are critically examined and put to the service of social justice, environmental health, and ethical values. I am passionate about connecting disciplines and cultures and applying project-based pedagogy to make learning real, exciting, and life-changing for students. Learn more at: https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/svetlana 
• Jianyu Liang: Dr. Jianyu Liang is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and the Director of the Materials and Manufacturing Engineering Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She has also served as a guest researcher at the Army Research Laboratory and as a visiting professor at Brown University. Dr. Liang leads interdisciplinary research at the intersection of machine learning, sustainability, and advanced manufacturing. Her team’s work, spanning areas from nanomaterials to agile manufacturing systems, has been supported by NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and a range of industry partners. As an educator, Dr. Liang is passionate about equipping students with the confidence, curiosity, knowledge, and skills needed to become lifelong learners and innovators. Learn more at: https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/jianyul  

How do you provide shelter for over 7 billion people, almost half of whom live on less than $5.50 a day? With rising slum populations, increasing natural disasters, and overflowing refugee camps, how do we address the growing demands for safe living spaces? What do we need to understand as designers, engineers, or aid workers to provide shelter for the world? Working in teams in this design studio, we will learn design concepts, the Design-Build process, materials, and structure to address this housing challenge. We will create a model that is affordable, safe, and appropriate for our selected population.

This GPS carries 1/3 unit ES1000 credit and 1/3 unit SSPS1000 credit.

Meet the Instructors!

• Kathryn (Katie) Crockett: As a retired professional architect, I bring real world design, community service, and management experience to the Shelter the World faculty team. In the GPS class, it has been especially satisfying to engage with first year students as they explore opportunities to address the global housing crisis in an interdisciplinary manner. With my community connections, we have been able to collaborate with Worcester and local businesses to develop strategies for actual projects in the area – leading to a tangible experience for the students. I believe the best architecture brings forward meaningful cultural improvement through innovation – the Shelter the World class is a place to explore and experience the process to reach that goal. 
• Amanda Wittman: I am the social scientist and researcher in the Shelter the World faculty team. Along with my architecture colleagues, we explore interdisciplinary and global approaches to designing and delivering one of the most basic of human needs – shelter. I bring a focus on community participation and engagement, research practices and teamwork dynamics to the course so that our real-world projects are both theoretical and practical. My goal is to create a learning experience for first-year students that introduces them to project-based learning, explores design thinking, and highlights their ability to be civic problem solvers. Learn more at: https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/awittman  

Throughout most of Earth’s history, species disappeared at an average rate of 1 to 5 per year, and fossil evidence shows that five mass extinction catastrophes have occurred. Scientists estimate that we are witnessing the sixth mass extinction. Where are extinctions currently having the greatest impact? How might conservation efforts prevent them? This Great Problems Seminar examines debates about past and present causes of extinction, the factors that contribute to vulnerability or resiliency of endangered species, and the consequences of species loss, including the links with pathogenic outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

This GPS carries 1/3 unit BB1000 credit and 1/3 unit INTL1000 (counts towards HUA) credit.

Meet the Instructors!

• Marja Bakermans: I am a wildlife biologist who researches and promotes biodiversity conservation by maintaining viable wildlife populations across the landscape. I am interested in how management practices, steeped in traditional practices and knowledge, can support humans and wildlife. Ultimately, it is my goal to provide an inclusive and enjoyable learning environment that fosters the growth process for students and allows us all to be lifelong learners. Learn more at https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/mbakermans  
• William San Martín: William San Martín is an Assistant Professor of Global Environmental Science, Technology, and Governance at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He integrates Science and Technology Studies (STS), environmental history, and global environmental governance to examine how knowledge systems, institutions, and technologies influence socio-environmental inequalities and policy outcomes, particularly between the Global South and North. As an interdisciplinary scholar trained in the social sciences and humanities, William examines the intersections of nitrogen biochemistry, agricultural development, climate-agriculture policy, and environmental governance. He uses historical, archival, and community-based participatory methods to analyze how knowledge and governance systems influence sustainability transitions and determine which perspectives are represented in decision-making. Learn more at: https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/wsanmartin